Nordic knitting

7th April
What do you give someone who has everything? What do you give a man? These are often questions I ask and I find it hard to buy or make for.

Nordic knitting

During my foray into the capital last week I made my way across town to the infamous shop called Loop . Despite it being much smaller than I imagined and less of the Aladdin's cave I had been led to believe, it was still a little treasure gem and I managed to spend a few of my hard earned pounds. I can never resist anything Scandinavian, Norwegian especially and here I found a wonderful knitting book called Knit Nordic There is much written about Norwegian knitting design and the photography is stunning throughout, with several different projects for beginner and advanced alike. It had to be purchased and it had to be mine...

So what do you make for someone who has everything?

Photo by Gina Marie

Well... not the above doll toilet roll holder. This is almost identical to the one my husband's English grandmother had and I think is one of the fears he had when I took up knitting and crocheting, that I may make one of these for our bathroom. He need not fear, the Scandinavian in me will always shine through, so on to what to make someone who has everything, can you guess yet?

Scandinavian style toilet roll cover

One made and another on the way

Before blocking, I just love the design

Two made in two days. Quick and fun.

Not the neatest of knitting

I love the way the decreases create their own pattern on the top

This is such a simple design, I used size 3 dpn and dk wool. Cast on 80 stitches, 20 on each needle. ribbed for four rows and then knitted the pattern for 35 rows before decreasing. decreasing was fun too, started with knit 8, k2tog till the end of the row and then knitted a plain row. Then decreased down a stich so, knit 7, k2tog repeating till the end of the row and then knit a plain row again, before beginning on the knit 6, k2tog , 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, etc , until you come to the end where you k2tog and are left with 8 stitches and cast off.

This was so simple and is continuing to encourage me to knit more. I'm doing well so far this year, my Arne and Carlos baubles and now these toilet roll covers, I have my eye on a few more things from this book, so watch this space...